Thirty Moments
by White Rabbit Tale
Summary: [OC Exchange] Thirty snapshots of the relationship between Sanosuke and Shino. Based from Khrysalis's Sandalwood and Spring Wind.
1. Affaire de Coeur

**Disclaimer: Watsuki owns Rurouni Kenshin and all related characters (including Sano). Khrysalis owns this lovely character, Shino.**

This is my OC Exchange Project for Khrysalis's Shino from her fanfic _Sandalwood and Spring Wind_. This is also a piece written for the 30 Romances challenge on LiveJournal.

I have almost all thirty chapters of this collection written.The chapters vary in size--some no more than three lines, some three paragraphs. It just so happens that this first one is exactly one hundred words, including the title._**  
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Enjoy!_**

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_**Affaire de Coeur**_

He made off with your heart as easily as a sparrow makes off with a worm after a day of rain. You didn't realize how much you were willing to give until he gave everything to you.

You never needed to ask yourself if you trusted him, loved him, needed him, you simply _knew_. And when you wondered how that was, you could not find an answer. It was not his goodness, his charm or the way he protected you. It simply _was._

Your mind had no business questioning it; it was an affair of the heart.

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I was going to post all thirty moments as the same chapter, but I finally realized that would be a bit much to take all in one sitting. So I am posting them alphabetically, a few a day. 

Please tell me what you think.


	2. Aesthesiogen

**Same disclaimers apply.**

The second one...this is a little short, and a little odd, but oh well.

50 words this time.

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**_Aesthesiogen_**

He calls your name, your blood pumps a little harder. He whispers _Shiden-me _to you, you can't help but blush. His light touches at night and friendly grasps at day fill you with happiness, you heart is brimming with starlight. He is your aesthesiogen, and you can't get enough.

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Review please! 


	3. Ananias

**Standard Disclaimers apply. I also don't own Shino. She is the amazing Khrysalis's )**

The last of the a's...I'll post the b's tomorrow. (Yeah, it's in alphabeticall order.)

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_**Ananias**_ You are forty now. Forty. And you look no less like the twenty-year-old you were two decades ago. 

Your husband is aging, you can see his features grow old and soften with age. He begins to look older than you.

The years pass and your face lies, making you look forever like an innocent child. Most women would kill to stay youthful and beautiful. To look in the mirror and see their young selves staring back.

You look in the mirror and all you see is lies.

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Oddly enough, I like the concept I came up with for this one. Don't know about the execution, though... 

Review please!


	4. Banter

**All disclaimers apply. I don't own Sano or Shino.**

Truth be told, I don't really like this one that much. I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't come up with something better...oh well, tell me what _you _think of it.

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_**Banter**_

He starts this up with you, this back-and-forth chain reaction. He is never cruel, of course, but when he does this it makes you feel strange. You rarely engage in it, and when you do you feel as though you aren't supposed to. As if this exchange of words is something from his past, from his life on the world that is a mirror of your own.

You wonder when he will stop expecting you to react like his Kenshin does, but then you wonder if it is such a bad thing that he expects it.

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	5. Blow

**I don't own Sano or Shino.**

I must have some obsession with sparrows.

Anyway, I like this one considerably better than the last. Hope you enjoy it, too!

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_**Blow**_

You think the gods brought him to you, because certainly nothing this perfect could have happened by accident. But you know it was not divine intervention, but the winds of his own loneliness that blew him to you. And like a mother sparrow in the chill of winter, you took him and kept him close before the winds could pick up and take him away again.

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Review please! 


	6. Bubbles

This one makes me smile. )

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_**Bubbles**_

He is up to his elbows in suds when you tell him you don't like laundry that much.

He chuckles and says he didn't expect you to, who would?

You think he does. You don't know why, but whenever you see him wash clothes, his mind seems to be elsewhere, laughing with the soapy bubbles that drift away and sometimes settle on his nose. He _likes_ laundry, and you've yet to learn why.

He splashes you with water, and you watch the bubbles drift around you, popping quietly when they touch your skin.

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Review please! 


	7. Bury

This is the first of these I wrote, and I do like it.

This is also the last of the b's...I'll post c's tomorrow, so enjoy!

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**_Bury_**

Sometimes you wake up, sweat sliding down your face, and remember what you escaped from years ago. Sometimes it is he who wakes, frantic for a moment before he finds your slumbering form beside him. You both have things you would like to leave, bury beneath layers of happiness and peace and what you have now.

But if you forget the _then_, the _now_ would not be so precious.

Sometimes you both wake up, and that is when you reach for him, pull him down with you until _now _is tangible, and you can feel it on the tips of his fingers.

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Review, thanks! 


	8. Cold Hands

I know this is a day late, but I couldn't find time to put these up yesterday. Enjoy!

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_**Cold Hands**_

You are sitting by the fire, concentration resting on the needle in your hands as it pokes its way through hills of blue fabric. He shuffles through the door, tracking his snowy boots on the floor.

You don't care. You rush to him, smiling like the little girl you never were, and he takes your hand. His are warm and rough, though he has been outside in the chilly air, and yours are cool, despite hours beside the fire. You marvel at this anomaly as you put your lips to his knuckle, and you decide it is just another way he completes you.

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Review please! 


	9. Collection

This is a very short one, but I do like it.

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**_Collection_**

He says he will gather every bit of you until you are his completely, but you laugh at his ridiculousness and when he gets angry you lay your cheek against his heart and tell him you are already his completely.

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	10. Craven

A part of Shino that I don't think will ever completely fade.

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**_Craven_**

When you get scared, it is hard to remember what he taught you. Stand tall, stick up for yourself, but it is so much easier just to submit. So instead of standing up for yourself, you just look to Sano and hope he doesn't realize what you're doing. He is your protector, but he wishes to do more for you than just stand up for you. He wants to teach you to do it yourself.

Next time someone starts pushing you around, you will remember. You will remember you are not a plaything, you will remember you are not a tool for a man's ego. And suddenly standing up for yourself and pushing back will be easier than submitting.

But letting Sanosuke protect you is easier still.

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Review please! 


	11. Creme de la Creme

The last one for tonight...tomorrow, the d's.

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**_Crème de la crème_**

You sit on top of the world today.

His hand spreads over your waist and his knee props you up as you lean on his arm—it's injured, so you don't lean hard. You laugh and kiss and act like there's no day but today, no moment but right now, no reason to be reasonable.

If anyone else could see you in this secret place with him, they would not see the magic in your eye or the gold in his heart. They would see a scrawny girl and a beat-up old ruffian.

But it doesn't matter to you; you sit on top of the world.

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Thanks for reading, and please review! 


	12. The Devil's Advocate

The first of the D's...enjoy!

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_**The Devil's Advocate**_

When you were younger—so young, even, it is hard to recall—you were called a spawn of the devil because of your hair. It was too different for them. So different that it could only be the mark of the devil, surely there was no other way to interpret it.

You wonder what those same people would say about Sanosuke. A man who claims to be from a mirror world. Perhaps you are a devil-child, leading Sanosuke further down a path that may destroy him.

Your intentions are good—you want only to love him. But everyone knows the road to hell is _paved_ with good intentions.

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Review please! 


	13. Dice

A short one...hope you like!

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**_Dice_**

You worry about his habits and his health. He seems to be shooting dice, taking chances he shouldn't with his life. But who are you to tell him to stand down? Who are you to say he should be more careful? He lives the way he wishes to live, and if it weren't for his gambles, you would not be his wife. You just wonder what happens when luck runs out.

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The next one is one of the few I have yet to write...which I'll do tomorrow. 

Review please!


	14. Emotions

No, I did not forget about this fic! And yes, it will be finished, and quite soon, as most of the rest are done. This is one that I got completely stuck on, but I simply sat down and wrote it. I like the outcome.

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**_Emotions   
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They say you wear your emotions on your sleeve—maybe some do, but you don't. Sano wears them on his back, carrying them like a barrel of rice, a burden wherever he goes. He wears _evil_ on his back and regret with it.

But there is one emotion that is not his back. It is not on his sleeve. It's in his smile, and you are the only one who ever gets to see it. Because that emotion—and some call it love—is only for you.****

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The rest should be along shortly.  



	15. Footfall

A slightly longer one...I kinda like it.

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**_Footfall _**

He thinks you don't hear him coming to check on you each night. It endears you to him more than it annoys you—that he thinks you are so oblivious to his protective ways.

Rather than a rooster-head as he says his friends called him, you find more similarities between him and mother hen.

You start to realize that you can't go to sleep without hearing him tread away from your door quietly._  
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_I'm going to keep you safe, Shino-chan, _he whispers in your doorway one night. You smile in the dark as you listen to the sound of his footsteps fade away.

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Reviews are always appreciated.  



	16. Freak

In case you've forgotten, please refer to the first chapter for the disclaimer. Part of the reason I can upload these so quickly is that I don't have to keep repeating that I don't own Sano and I don't own Shino.

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**_Freak _**

****He is ashamed of the scars on his arm. You catch him glancing at the melted skin, a disgusted look on his face. _Monster, _his face says. _Freak, _he whispers in tones you cannot hear.

It pains you to see that look. You are not ashamed or afraid of his scars. They are what brought him to you, so you kiss them and bless them and tell him he is beautiful.

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This is one of my favorites. What about you?  



	17. Garden Vista

This one might be a little confusing...but I like the end.

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**_Garden Vista _**

When he first came to you, you saw a hint of what could be. You ignored it and made friends with him—easy as that. He left you and you forgot all about it—that one picture that could represent your entire life, laid out in front of you like a map.

You saw him again and you could trace where you would go, what you would see and how you would feel on that map. But only a tiny bit of that squiggly line could you see at once. Each time his eyes flickered to yours, more of that path was illuminated.

You wondered what he could see in your eyes. How often he took notice to them, calling you _Shiden-me_ and always tilting your face up so he could look you in the eye.

You know now what he saw was not a hint of what could be, but a vast, beautiful landscape of what _was. _

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Reviews are always appreciated.  



	18. Headache

Not sure about this one...but the theme certainly pertains to Shino and Sano.

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**_Headache_**

****It scares you when he's sick, because somehow it's hard to believe he'll ever be better. But there is a part of his pain that you like, because when he comes home and his head is pounding, you can give him half of what he has given you. You wordlessly pat your lap and he lies comfortably there, your fingers tracing his features and lacing through his hair until you both doze off, only to wake up in the morning with another crick in your neck and a stiff arm. But you grin and it doesn't matter, because sometimes comfort comes hand-in-hand with pain.

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	19. In the Rain

Last one for today...have to give myself time to finish the unfinished ones. But I promise all thirty will be up ASAP.

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**_In the Rain_**

Three kilometers away from home and soaking wet, and all he can do is smile sheepishly. You are angry—not as angry as you've ever been, but angry enough. You wonder how on earth he could be so stupid, to get you both lost in the rain when he could very easily get sick again. And you tell him so but he tilts your chin up and replies that he meant his stupid mistake.

Your shivering, blue lips meet and he says he meant it with all his heart.

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A tribute to one of my favorite romantic cliches: kissing in the rain.  



	20. Limitation

First one of the day...

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**_Limitation_**

****Before you met him, everything was a roadblock, everything an obstacle. There was so much to overcome, in yourself and in others. The moment he showed you your limitations, you felt you could do anything. Everything that was hard and painful before seemed like a creation, something made-up by you, for you, to stop you.

He was not made up, he was yours, and with him you could do anything.

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Tell me what you think.  



	21. Memory

This one's a bit longer.

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**_Memory_**

****You know there is no feeling of happiness he's ever had that can compare with now. You know the time he spends with you is the most sacred time he's ever been given. You know this because the smile on his face every morning mirrors the smile on yours.

But you cannot help but wonder if he will ever go back. Back to his old life. He was happy there, too, and whether driven by curiosity or longing, he will someday make it back there.

So you cling to him at night and wonder if some day this will all just be a memory to him, some distant past, separate from his life. The thought scares you, but it brings you comfort. Should you die, you know your only monument will be in him, in the heart of the man who loves you.

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I can't put too many up today because there are still a couple I need to write. Next one will probably be the last.  



	22. Paradox

Unless I suddenly get a burst of inspiration today, this will be the last one until tomorrow. Enjoy!

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**_Paradox_**

He thought once of orchestrating a romance between you and Kaoru. He says the Kaoru from his world and his Kenshin were made for each other. He said it was not by chance that they met, that fate had a hand in it as a way of reprieve for Kenshin's tired soul. He thought, perhaps, that the Kenshin and Kaoru of this world would be the same way.

He was wrong.

You don't believe people are meant to be together. You believe people are driven towards each other by their own needs, the deepest desires of their hearts. You were driven to Sanosuke, not Kaoru, just as the Kenshin of the mirror world was driven to _his_ Kaoru.

But if things had happened different, if you had met Kaoru first, would Sanosuke have found you? And if he didn't, how would you have met Kaoru in the first place? You try not to think about this because your mind jumps around in circles.

You are glad for _Byakudan. _You are glad for the lightening scar that will never heal. You are glad for whatever magic brought Sanosuke to you—even if it was only the loneliest lament of his heart, you are glad for it.

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A note to all you OC Exchangers...a new exchange HAS begun, and it's special for the holidays. Go take a look.  



	23. Perfume

Finally I can get more of these up! Sorry for the wait, Khrysalis!

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_**Perfume**_

Scents seem to haunt him and turn him inside out. He talks of jasmine, sakura blossoms and peaches. He surprises you when he says you have one too—a perfume that drives him crazy.

You can't quite grasp what it is about smells that mean so much to him. To you, he is just Sano, and he can smell of wood and spice or soap and water. But to him, you are sandalwood and spring winds, fleeting scents that he can never quite hold onto.

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Review please! 


	24. Search

I like this one. Yeah.

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**_Search_**

When he is tired and sitting beside you, you look at his face, pretending you've never seen it before. There are lines etched there, but also an absent smile as his fingers shiver down your arm. You look at him and try to see something besides what's in front of you, but either you are very bad at looking or he is simply what he is.

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The next one has not been written. I'll be working on that. 


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